Three Branchburg police officers responding to a report of a “suspicious person” at a Quick Chek, realized the man was not a shoplifter.

But he acted nervous and ran. The cops followed.

After searching for 15 minutes, the officers spotted the suspect lying near Dumpsters in a nearby trailer park.

The officers drew their guns and ordered the suspect to surrender, instead he turned on them. A scuffle ensued and the officers Maced the man, forcing him to surrender.

“It’s during that scuffle that they realized that he had a high-powered rifle underneath his jacket with a couple of banana clips loaded for rounds that would go through their vests, and their police car door and maybe through the other side of their police car,” Branchburg Police Chief Brian Fitzgerald said.

Lloyd WoodsonThe suspect was Lloyd Woodson, 44, of Virginia, who allegedly stashed an arsenal of high-powered weapons, including a grenade-launcher, in a township motel room in January. Woodson was indicted last month on multiple weapons charges, including possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose, possession of hollow-point bullets and attempted robbery.

Fitzgerald awarded the Exceptional Duty Award to patrolmen Steven Cronce, Robert Farrigan and Robert Stober during Monday’s township committee meeting.

“In a police officer’s career you look back and think of a handful of incidents that maybe you did a little differently than another officer might have, and it’s those incidents that you’re most proud of,” Fitzgerald said as he praised the officers for making the most significant arrest in the department’s history.

Investigators found a second assault rifle, a second vest, the grenade-launcher, ammunition, a night scope, maps and a police scanner in Woodson’s room at the Red Mill Inn on Route 22.

“I don’t think it was until later that we realized who we had just taken into custody and what we had just accomplished,” Stober, 37, of Hunterdon County, said.

“It was good to see something we had done had made the national news media for all the right reasons,” Stober said.

Despite the danger, Cronce, 33, of Holland Township, said he wouldn’t change a thing. “I would do the same thing I did that night, the same exact way,” he said.

Farrigan, 46, of Whitehouse Station, was happy with the way the arrest panned out. “I think everybody just kicked in and did what they were supposed to do, I’m happy that nobody got hurt, including the defendant,” he said.